Industry Chair For New South Island ICT Grad School

Industry Chair Announced For New South Island ICT Grad School

SIGNAL, the new South Island ICT Grad School, has appointed international businessman David Band as its new chair.

Dr Band comes to the role with 30 years of experience in global consulting firms, running large business schools, and directing and investing in technology-based companies.

Dr Band describes his new role with SIGNAL as both a challenge and a great opportunity.

“It is a challenge to New Zealand higher education to think in terms of – and to deliver – return on investment to New Zealand. And it is a huge opportunity for local businesses, students and educators to help us all make giant strides towards being a truly competitive knowledge economy,” he says.

“As with all great ideas, the success of SIGNAL and other ICT Grad Schools will be determined by how well we execute those ideas. What will this require? Many things, but in particular, an unrelenting focus on outcome and a determination to be driven at all times by the needs of our customers – business and students.”

The interim chair of SIGNAL, the University of Canterbury’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Business and Law Professor Sonia Mazey, says to have someone of Dr Band’s experience and industry knowledge joining the SIGNAL board is a tremendous coup.

“David brings SIGNAL the wealth of his contacts and experiences, plus a real focus on outcome. He is a terrific asset to our new grad school.”

SIGNAL – the South Island ICT Grad School – is a collaboration between Ara Institute of Canterbury, Lincoln University, Otago Polytechnic, the University of Canterbury and the University of Otago. The grad school, funded by TEC, is also closely aligned with industry and is tasked with meeting the technology sector’s growing demand for highly-skilled ICT professionals.

BACKGROUND
SIGNAL stands for South Island Graduate Network and Laboratories. As well as producing highly-skilled IT graduates with work-relevant skills, SIGNAL will provide more effective pathways for graduates from IT education into employment. It will help grow New Zealand’s IT talent and knowledge to support business growth, innovation and productivity. SIGNAL is now open for enrolments across its four industry-aligned programmes: Educate, Shift, Xtend and Accelerate (www.signal.ac.nz), and will open its doors at two physical locations – The Granary in Dunedin’s burgeoning Warehouse Precinct and in the Innovation Precinct, Christchurch – in February 2017.

SIGNAL PROGRAMME INFORMATION
1. EDUCATE: For all school teachers who would like to develop their knowledge and skills to teach the fast growing areas of Digital Technologies in schools, particularly computer science curriculum and computer programming.

2. SHIFT: For graduates from non IT areas who wish to move into an IT focused career; and for recent graduates who want to augment their recently gained qualifications with IT skills to further their employment prospects.
3. ACCELERATE: For entry level or early career employees with primary IT roles (recent tertiary level IT graduates) to improve and/or expand their proficiencies and capabilities in a work-based learning programme.

4. XTEND: For experienced IT professionals who wish to move into a leadership role or extend their technical abilities.
Delivery of SIGNAL programmes: Professionals enrolled in SIGNAL programmes will be engaged with businesses as part of their course of study. This engagement varies from company visits with Educate through placements, projects and internships with Shift to study whilst embedded in Accelerate and Xtend.

For specific programme details (fees, entry requirements, course details etc) call 0800 990024 or visitwww.signal.ac.nz

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